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CARISBROOKE CASTLE.

[Illustration: CARISBROOKE CASTLE, ISLE OF WIGHT.]

"Still farther in the vale a castle lifts
Its stately towers, and tottering battlements,
Drest with the rampant ivy's uncheck'd growth."

>>_The chief curiosities within the castle are_ ... THE KEEP, _the
immense_ WELL, _and the apartments which were the_ PRISON _of King
Charles I and his family_.

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The high antiquity of this beautiful ruin, which occupies the crown of a
hill only one mile westward of Newport, renders it an object of the most
pleasing interest with all classes of visitors to the Isle of Wight; and
it is the only local specimen of ancient fortification deserving a
stranger's notice. It is known to have existed for at least fourteen
centuries, having in that long period been subjected of course to many
mutations. The Saxon chronicles mention it as a place of strength and
importance in the year 530, when Cerdic subdued the island; and it was
subsequently rendered almost impregnable, according to the mode of
fortification which prevailed among the Normans, by William
Fitz-Osborne, to whom the island was given by the Conqueror. And in the
reign of queen Elizabeth, it received the most substantial repairs and
ample additions; when the outer trenches and bastions were formed upon
the plan of those of Antwerp--circumscribing about 20 acres.